Reddit reviews Spy Handler: Memoir of a KGB Officer - The True Story of the Man Who Recruited Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames

I read a really good book on this subject called Spy Handler: Memoir of a KGB Officer, and I certainly recommend it. It was written by the KGB officer who ran Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, two of the most important spies the soviets ever had in the US.

For those unfamiliar, Aldrich Ames was a CIA officer who sold the identity of western sources (spies for the US) to the KGB for cash.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said:
>Ames admitted that he had compromised "virtually all Soviet agents of the CIA and other American and foreign services known to me" and had provided the USSR and Russia with a "huge quantity of information on United States foreign, defense and security policies". It is estimated that information Ames provided to the Soviets led to the compromise of at least a hundred U.S. intelligence operations and to the execution of at least ten U.S. sources.

Robert Hanssen is the FBI agent who spent 22 years feeding secrets to the KGB. The investigation leading to his arrest is dramatized in the 2007 movie Breach.

Of particular interest in this book is the way Cherkashin talks about the recruiting game. His best spies were motivated by money (Ames) or ego (Hanssen), but he also talks about the use of sexual blackmail. At one point he uses the services of a female agent to collect incriminating photography that he then uses to blackmail the man into providing information. What I love is the way he talks about how these different sources had to be managed, requiring an understanding of human motivations and what people were willing to do. Someone you were blackmailing could only be pushed so far, after all. While he did not operate far outside of Human Intelligence (HumInt) gathering, he does talk a lot about several operations that caught US spies. A very good read!

Spy Handler: Memoir of a KGB Officer is a fascinating read by the man who was the case handler for some of America's most notorious spies including Robert Hannsen and Aldrich Ames.

I'm sure you do...Comrade...o_O

The KGB was far and away better than CIA in human intelligence. Two books I read and enjoyed. Spymaster and Spy Handler

My first master's degree was in Intelligence Studies with a concentration in Intelligence Operations.

My two favorite books are supplemental to each other but talk about the the US v. the USSR during the mid 80s to late 90s. One is from the perspective a former CIA case officer and the other is from the perspective of a former KGB case officer.

The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB by Milt Bearden
Spy Handler: Memoir of a KGB Officer

A great overview of intelligence history is A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century by Jeffery T. Richelson. Richelson is very knowledgeable about intelligence history and well respected as one of the premiere historians in the field. He has written a ton of other books and I imagine they're pretty good and worthwhile.

Finally, Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis is a great book not only about the Cuban Missile Crisis but examining how national security decisions are made.

Sorry to arrive late to the party, but there is another book regarding the resident KGB officer at the USSR embassy in Washington D.C.